The 2024 GB3 Championship season saw an intense three-way battle for the title between Louis Sharp, John Bennett and Tymek Kucharczyk, with each driver enjoying spells when they were clearly the driver to beat.
But who was the outright fastest of the season? We’ve crunched the numbers from another dramatic year of racing, and calculated the fastest drivers on average throughout the year based on ‘supertimes’ (full description at the end of the article). Let’s discover the fast five of 2024!
5. Gerrard Xie, Hitech Pulse-Eight
Proof that a second year in a championship can reap big rewards! The Chinese driver was ranked 19th in this same list last year, but with more experience under his belt, shot up into the top-five this time around. Xie was one of the three fastest drivers at two events this year: the Hungaroring where he claimed pole position (but lap times proved even quicker in the second race of the weekend) and at the second visit to Silverstone. On average, Xie was over seven tenths of a second closer to pace in 2024 than he was in 2023. Big progress!
4. McKenzy Cresswell, Elite Motorsport
A first time inside the ‘quick quintet’ for Cresswell, who in his third year, showed even more refinement. With plenty of experience now in GB3, the British driver was among the fastest three at a trio of this year’s events; second quickest on the first trip to Silverstone and the outright fastest at Silverstone and Brands Hatch later in the year. Even though a third campaign means gains are harder to find, he still was on average 0.076s closer to the pace in 2024 compared to 2023. Cresswell’s pace average was 100.306, meaning over a theoretical 90-second lap time, he was just 0.168s away from this year’s pace-setter.
3. John Bennett, JHR Developments
Like Cresswell, in his third year of GB3, but 2024 is when everything fell into place for Bennett, who has since gone on to score points in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. Bennett made staggering progress with JHR this year, on average around eight tenths of a second closer to the pace than his 2023 performances, and generally less than half a tenth away from this year’s quickest contender. Although he didn’t set the outright fastest time at an event this year, he was the second quickest at Oulton Park, Spa, Zandvoort and the Brands Hatch season finale. He’s confirmed his full-time F2 graduation in 2025, and we look forward to witnessing further progress!
2. Louis Sharp, Rodin Motorsport
Incredible speed and consistency in his first GB3 campaign ensured Sharp was a very worthy champion in a very competitive grid; our top-three were on average separated by less than half a tenth throughout the year! Sharp is the only ‘rookie’ GB3 contender in our 2024 fast five, and our numbers put him 0.001s on average quicker than Bennett throughout the year! Showing his class, Sharp was among the fastest three drivers at 75 percent of this year’s events, and the fastest of all at Oulton Park and the Hungaroring. He was also inside the top-three at Spa, Silverstone (July), Donington Park and Brands Hatch, with the mixture of speed and consistency securing him the 2024 GB3 title on the final day of the season. He stays with Rodin Motorsport as he moves up to FIA F3 next year.
1. Tymek Kucharczyk, Hitech Pulse-Eight
Quoted at the end of the season, the Polish star reckoned he was the quickest driver of the year, and our numbers just about back that up! Our calculations put him as the fourth quickest contender during his debut campaign in 2023, but he gained around three tenths of a second in 2024, enough to put him on average 0.047s ahead of the pack around a theoretical 90-second lap. An outstanding season saw Kucharczyk as the quickest contender at Silverstone (April), Spa and Zandvoort, and was third fastest at Hungary and Donington Park. Bad luck and the occasional incident ultimately dented his title aspirations, but there can be no doubt that Kucharczyk is as quick as they come, and a bright future in motorsport beckons!
Honorary mentions
Shout outs to Ugo Ugochukwu (who was inside the top-five based on his four appearances this year) and also to his Rodin teammate Arthur Rogeon, who was the only driver outside the top-three on this list to set the fastest time of an entire race weekend (Donington Park). Will Macintyre and Nikita Johnson were the other drivers to be inside the top-three at a particular event.
The ‘supertimes’ demonstrate another extremely competitive GB3 season, in which the top-10 was again split by just over half a second, and with 1.4 seconds covering the 21 drivers who participated in the majority of this year’s rounds.
The figures:
Xie
Season average: 100.431%
Theoretical 90-second lap time: 90.388s (+0.281s)
Cresswell
Season average: 100.306%
Theoretical 90-second lap time: 90.275s (+0.168s)
Bennett
Season average: 100.172%
Theoretical 90-second lap time: 90.155s (+0.048s)
Sharp
Season average: 100.171%
Theoretical 90-second lap time: 90.154s (+0.047s)
Kucharczyk
Season average: 100.119%
Theoretical 90-second lap time: 90.107s
Fastest times at each event:
Oulton Park: Louis Sharp, 1m29.292s (qualifying)
Silverstone: Tymek Kucharczyk, 1m53.367s (race one)
Spa-Francorchamps: Tymek Kucharczyk, 2m14.596s (qualifying)
Hungary: Louis Sharp, 1m39.584s (race two)
Zandvoort: Tymek Kucharczyk, 1m31.584s (race two)
Silverstone: McKenzy Cresswell, 1m52.703s (qualifying)
Donington Park: Arthur Rogeon, 1m24.049s (race three)
Brands Hatch: McKenzy Cresswell, 1m18.479s (qualifying)
Criteria
Only the drivers who completed a significant portion of the season have been included in the calculations; we’ve taken six of the eight rounds as our minimum participation point. Each driver’s worst event has also been dropped from the calculations. For most contenders this was Zandvoort, an event that saw many drivers either eliminated or affected by a start-line accident in race two, which was by far the fastest session of the weekend.
What is a supertime?
From each race event, we’ve taken the fastest individual lap set by each driver and converted that into a percentage of the quickest outright effort from that event. This allows a greater spectrum of data to be analysed, and allows us to create a season-long average. The closer each driver is to 100%, the faster they were across the year as a whole. Around a 90-second lap, (similar to Oulton Park) one percent is equivalent to around nine tenths of a second of lap time.